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.Net Assemblies can contain various types of resources like images, icons, files, etc. Such resources are mostly static, i.e.; do not keep changing during run time or application wise. Also, such resources are not executable items. So while deploying such assemblies, we need to make sure those resources are intact with the packaged assemblies. Else, assemblies may blow up while executing the resource dependent methods. So as part of deployment strategy, we should embed such resources into the assembly itself.

Today we will see one such example of embedding Xml file into assembly.

Add one Class Library type project into the solution.

Add one Xml file as well. Fill Xml file with few data that the class library may use to query.

Right click on the Xml file, and select Properties –> BuildAction. Out of several BuildAction options, select EmbeddedResource.

There you may see other properties as well like Copy to Output Directory. It has options like this:

If you select Do Not Copy, output of building the class library inside \bin\ folder will not have separate *.dll than embedded Xml file.

If you select Copy Always, output of building the class library inside \bin\ folder will always have *.dll and an embedded Xml file.

However, I prefer the first option. By this we make sure our distributable assembly is only one *.dll. This way the embedded resource Xml file cannot be modified, and our assembly can safely execute methods that depend upon this Xml file. I like to suggest one more tips here- rename this Xml file extension to *.config. Renaming Xml file extension to *.config makes file not browse able by Browser in web applications.

Here I have shown steps of embedding resource file into .Net assembly. This assembly can be either Class Library or Web application. We cannot embed resource file into web site type project as Web site does not produce assembly like Web application.

Now, let’s see how we can access embedded Xml file from assembly during runtime.

There are two methods shown above- one returning XmlDocument object and other returning IO.Stream. Either of the return type can be used to construct XmlDocument object now at caller end of these methods.

Now let’s verify the assembly if it has any embedded resource or not. We can do this using either Reflector or Ildasm tool.

Reflector View:

Ildasm View:

See resource name is qualified with assembly namespace name prefixed to it- MathLibrary.XMLFile.config.

Coding less and debugging more has always been part of programming. Debugging of code is always accompanied by locating appropriate break-points and inspecting program execution. But locating break points again and again whenever a solution is opened for debugging consumes time. When we feel the program execution is happening as expected, then we either delete break-points or disable them. Overall, programmers spend few minutes for break-points activities.

Visual Studio 2010 comes with new feature of exporting and importing break-points in an xml file. So when we are done with break-points, we can export and save at a physical location. Then, delete the break-points (Ctrl + Shift + F9). Whenever we require break-points again in code, we can import the settings file that we saved last time. This xml file contains all the required settings of break-points in the code like line number, file name, etc.

Snapshots shown below are self-explanatory for .Net programmers.

Open break-point window (Ctrl + Alt + B).

Fig 1: Exporting break-points

Fig 2: Importing break-points

After importing break-point xml file, the break-points are again set at lines and files where break-points were set originally.